Reid My Mind

This past Sunday February 28 I tuned into the 88^th Academy Awards to hear how Chris Rock handled the so called controversy. If you’re not familiar, with several movies this year featuring African American actors delivering what many would describe as Oscar worthy performances, for the second year in a row not a single African American or to my knowledge any person of color was nominated for an Oscar. Jada Pinkett Smith, actor and wife to Will Smith who delivered one of those performances, decided to call for a boycott. Now I know many are thinking, “Yo T, how the hell does that relate to audio description? Hang on, I’ll get there!

Chris Rock who was scheduled to host the Oscars prior to the call for a boycott was urged by some to quit. I didn’t agree with that. In fact, if we had some sort of “Black Council” formed to deal with such matters, and I was appointing the person to address the issue in the role of host, I honestly can’t think of another entertainer who could do a better job. Chris hits hard, no apologies, but does it in a way that is funny and entertaining to most. He can administer the medicine which may be hard to swallow for some, but it goes down. And everybody’s getting some medicine!

His opening monolog put the issue into perspective while the simple summary captured the goal of the ultimate desire prompting a boycott “…we want opportunity. We want black actors to get the same opportunities as white actors.”

Following Chris’ monolog I was half listening to the list of nominees in the first category; when I noticed the voice of one of the presenters providing audio description for the nominated scene. I stopped browsing the web and listened carefully. Unfortunately, by that time, the winner was announced and I didn’t even hear which category. I thought to myself, “Wow, do they actually have a category for best description?” I went back to the web. A few minutes later, once again I hear what sounds like audio description. This time coming from no other than Russell Crow. I know that voice, that’s Gladiator, I can tell you details about the day I saw that movie – if you have a lot of time to spare!

So by this time, I was getting excited. Yes, I get pretty happy when there’s an effort made to include access for me and others with vision loss. I’m a fan of movies and now I almost only watch a movie if it includes audio description.

If it weren’t for the Oscar’s lack of diversity as in #OscarsSoWhite, I wouldn’t have heard about the inclusion of description. I’m pretty in tuned to the blindness community and things related. Shouldn’t I have heard that the Academy Awards were offering audio description?

I sat up, grabbed my digital recorder in anticipation of the next category. I’m going to express my gratitude, I thought. I want to publicly congratulate the Academy for including me, including us! The next category is announced and I hit record…, nothing! No description. “Ok, that makes sense, “I think to myself, “way too much dialog in the scene to include description.”

Fast forward through the next few categories…, nothing!

“Ouie, What’s up with that…!” – Keenan Thompson, Saturday Night Live

So was I the only person hearing voices that night?

Nope. From the clip above someone else heard it.

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As with every under represented group of people…”We just want to be included”